Gillard has no children, and in what has been interpreted by some as a thinly veiled reference to this, Abbott criticised the government's plans to reduce the "baby bonus", a payment made to Australian parents of newborns. The A$5,000 handout will be cut back for second and subsequent children.

The government reasoned that parents bought most of their baby equipment such as cots and prams for the first child and didn't need so much money to buy new items for each subsequent baby. But Abbott responded: "Often one child is still in the cot when the second one comes along, one child is still in the pram when the second one comes along.

"I think if the government was a bit more experienced in this area they wouldn't come out with glib lines like that."

When asked in an ABC radio interview about Abbott's comments, Gillard said: "Mr Abbott can explain what he meant by that line." Other senior Labor government figures called for clarification.

"So what's he [Abbott] really on about to suggest that this government isn't experienced at having children and therefore with the costs of children?"

Abbott later told Fairfax radio he was talking about his own experience – not the prime minister's – when he made the comment, having needed a double pram for two of his daughters born about 15 months apart.

"If she [Gillard] wants to take offence of course I'm sorry about that. And if she would like me to say sorry, I'm sorry," he said.

"Mate, I think a lot of people are very ready to read far too much into entirely innocent comments," he continued. "This was as innocent as a comment can be."

Abbott's office denied his comments were aimed at Gillard, instead saying he was criticising the government's general approach to families. "Plainly what he meant was that this government and the senior ministers in it have absolutely no understanding of the pressures on ordinary families," the shadow attorney general, George Brandis, told Sky News.

This is not the first time Gillard has been in the national spotlight over children. In 2007 the conservative senator, Bill Heffernan, accused the prime minister, then in opposition, of being unfit for leadership because she was "deliberately barren".

Gillard has a long-term partner, Tim Mathieson.

Abbott's comments come after two weeks of intense political debate over misogyny and sexism, following the prime minister's speech to parliament in which she told him if he wanted to know what a misogynist in modern Australia looked like he should look in a mirror.

On Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio on Tuesday, Gillard said she stood by "every word of that speech".

"I pointed to some very clear statements by Mr Abbott which I think indicated his attitudes to Australians and to Australian women in particular," she said.

Amongst other things, Gillard's "sexism" speech cited Abbott's past description of abortion as "the easy way out" and his characterisation of Australian women as housewives who did the ironing. The video has been watched more than 2m times on YouTube.

Tony Abbott, the Australian opposition leader accused of misogyny by the prime minister, Julia Gillard, says if the government had more experience in raising children it would not be reducing 'baby bonus' payment